It’s hard to know whether to be inspired or depressed by Rafael Rivera-Viruet’s fascinating documentary focusing on the development of Puerto Rican politics in New York City, “Politics con Sabor,” the first installment of which was shown to a small audience at Hunter College last week.

The pride felt by an ethnic community coming of age and fighting to overcome vicious barriers — like the imposition of literacy requirements on Puerto Rican-born American citizens trying to vote — and taking its place near the top of the city’s power structure is glorious.

Herman Badillo epitomized that ascension when he became the first Puerto Rican borough president and congressman.

But in the 1960s and 1970s, the typical infighting among politicians allied with different political clubs devolved into out-and-out factional violence among Puerto Rican elected officials and community leaders when federal anti-poverty money began flowing to the city, particularly to the south Bronx and Harlem. In watching that skirmishing, captured by still photos and recollections of participants, you can just hear the air hissing out of the Puerto Rican community’s once-buoyant campaign balloons. Jewish leaders took advantage of that squandering of Puerto Rican power and it was almost 20 years before another Puerto Rican followed Badillo into Borough Hall.

Even current Bronx leaders like Democratic boss Jose Rivera — no stranger to rough-and-tumble politics — say that the fighting stifled Puerto Rican political empowerment.

In the film, Rivera says that he thinks that a particularly vicious battle for the City Council between Gilberto Gerena Valentin and Ramon Velez “set us back some 22 years.”

Peter Rivera, the assemblyman who championed the film project in the state legislature, surprisingly and poignantly said at one point in the film, “Maybe there are no victories in those kinds of battles that politicians engage in.”

Outside electoral politics there are stories of empowerment that are just as important, and they get screen time, too. Some of them probably would be suitable documentary subjects of their own, like the raucous awakening of a younger generation of Puerto Ricans epitomized by the Young Lords (several alumni, like Juan Gonzalez and Pablo Guzman now populate the city’s media establishment). Or grassroots neighborhood leaders like Evelina Antonetty who were rare community anchors at a time when chunks of the borough were literally vanishing.

This movie, funded by politicians, could have been a disastrous puff piece. Instead, Peter Rivera and his colleagues did the right thing and placed it in the capable hands of the Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños  at Hunter College.

The result is a rich and nuanced look at Puerto Rican politics that we can only hope will educate future leaders and inspire them to apply their power more productively than some of their forbears.

The DVD of the film, which is in two parts (the second one focuses heavily on Bronx politics) goes on sale Sept. 21 for $49.95 (plus S & H) for individuals and $395 for institutions. To order, call (212) 629-6590 or Centro at (212) 772-5686.